Manny Bianco

Black Books is a BAFTA Award winning sitcom first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004. It revolves around the lives of three main characters: Bernard Black, played by Dylan Moran; Manny Bianco, played by Bill Bailey; and Fran Katzenjammer, played by Tamsin Greig. Bernard is the belligerent owner of the book shop Black Books, while Manny is his assistant, and Fran is their friend and neighbour. All three characters appeared in all 18 episodes of the show. Supporting characters appeared infrequently to support each episode's storyline, a number of whom were guest stars, as well as lesser known actors who went on to have major roles in British comedy series. Co-writer Graham Linehan also appeared in Ep. 1.2 as the "I Love Books" customer and Ep 1.5 as a fast food customer.

Bernard Ludwig Black, played by comedian Dylan Moran, is a bookseller and owner of the 'Black Books' bookshop, wherein much of the series takes place. Many episodes of the series focus on Black along with his quirky personality and issues. His distinctive physical traits are his wild, messy hair, and black clothing. He is portrayed as being a heavy smoker, so heavy, in fact, that he might have no sense of taste (in the episode "Grapes of Wrath" he eats a coaster, believing it is "some sort of delicious biscuit", not being able to taste the difference).

Bernard Black is a grumpy, drunken, cynical, pessimistic, and at times neurotic Irish misanthrope, whose sole pursuits in life appear to be drinking, smoking, reading, and insulting people. His assistant Manny implies that Bernard does not have a heart, referring to it as "just a shard of ice". His only other friend Fran, however, has "always seen it as a piece of flint". Bernard's role as the owner of the bookshop 'Black Books' is an interesting vocational choice when one takes into account the fact that he hates both the pressures and responsibilities involved in retail, as well as his customers, with extreme passion. To Bernard, the purchasing of his books is indeed a very bad thing, as it means he will have to take the time to order more from "the place where you order books from for when you want to sell them in your bookshop". This is a process capable of reducing him to genuine despair, and he is willing to pay people to take the second hand books they bring to sell him away from the shop so that he doesn't have to catalogue and sell them again.'The Big Lock-out', Black Books episode five, series one. Despite his loathing of the process of retail, he displays an appreciation for the medium in which he deals – when asked at one point if the binding on a set of the collected works of Charles Dickens is real leather, he counters with "They're real Dickens" – and on numerous occasions displays a fondness for the shop itself, demonstrating a defensive reaction to Manny's suggestions for improvement on his first day at work ("It is a lovely place!") and refusing to leave it for anything further than two minutes' walking distance away,'Party', Black Books episode six, series three, although this could in fact be related to his apparent distaste for anything but the most limited of human contact. However, Bernard has been shown to physically mistreat books, using a cookery book featuring an empty plate on the front cover as a substitute plate when expanding the shop into a restaurant and ripping out the last chapters of a book when a customer tries to buy it for fifty pence under the asking price. Despite his apparent fondness for the shop, he doesn't appear to have much faith in it – such as an instance in one episode, when a customer asked for a certain book. Bernard replied, "How should I know? Go to a proper book shop!". Bernard has even once displayed physical violence toward a customer after he was asked to find a book for the customer. The unfortunate man was forced to his knees and coldly informed, "from where you are now to that corner is our music section", before being savagely kicked and ordered to search. He then inadvertently locks said customer in the shop for 2 weeks while noisy construction is occurring next door, and the customer emerges at the end of Bernard, Manny, and Fran's holiday, happy to have found his book, but driven mad by the noise next door.

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